


Minutes to Midnight

by madamteatime



Category: Dong Bang Shin Ki
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-23
Updated: 2012-12-23
Packaged: 2017-11-27 02:29:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/657063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/madamteatime/pseuds/madamteatime
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It’s the holidays and Changmin just wants some way to see Yunho.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Minutes to Midnight

**Author's Note:**

> Some fluff to wish you all happy holidays and a wonderful new year :3

_25th December 2012_  
  
Changmin wakes on Christmas day to snow on his windowsill. He rolls upright and takes the blanket with him as he goes over to watch lazy flakes drift down and cover the world outside. He’d discovered that his window has the best view in the house, around the same time he stopped thinking of this place as home and started referring to it as his parents’ house. His room is still his room, except it’s not really. It’s funny how his mother has kept everything the same, as though she can somehow preserve the twelve year old boy he was inside it. There are still posters of his old idols on the walls. Changmin absently doodles a moustache on Boa’s face before heading downstairs, his blanket trailing behind him.  
  
They’ve been granted three days off before a flurry of year-end performances and Yunho’s gone home to Gwangju for the holidays. Changmin is halfway through unwrapping his present when he has to stop and call the other man out of sheer horror.  
  
“Hyung. This is the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen.”  
  
Yunho’s laughter fills the line like sunshine.  
  
“Do you like it? Do you like it? I know you like it,” he says.  
  
Changmin picks up the woollen hand-knit scarf between his thumb and forefinger and holds it as far away from himself as possible, just in case its ugliness is contagious. “Did you make this yourself?” he asks incredulously.  
  
“Yep!” Yunho sounds way too proud of himself. The scarf is about ten different colours that all clash with each other and some indefinable shape.  
  
“When?  _How?_  I can’t believe you still remember how to knit.” They had exchanged presents before parting ways yesterday with the promise to open them on Christmas day. Now Changmin knows why Yunho had wanted him to wait, because if he’d opened this in the other man’s vicinity he would have strangled Yunho with it.  
  
“I made it in secret whenever you weren’t around!”  
  
“I can’t believe you sacrificed your free time to make this monstrosity,” Changmin says.  
  
“Anything for my Changdola,” Yunho coos.  
  
“I want to burn it. Can I burn it?”  
  
“No you cannot burn it you ungrateful brat. You’re going to wear it and wear it with a smile.”  
  
Changmin whines, but Yunho is adamant that the scarf was made with a lot of love and effort and that he should treat it as such. Changmin thinks he might be a little drunk on Christmas food, because eventually he starts making overdramatic declarations of love and Changmin hangs up on him.  
  
Later that night when he dozes off on the couch his sister takes a picture of him and sends it to Yunho.  
  
He’s wearing the scarf.  
  
  
 _26th December 2012_  
  
Yunho calls him precisely at midnight because he’s a sap like that. Changmin puts his book aside and sits up in bed before reaching for his phone.  
  
“Hi,” Yunho says.  
  
“Hey.”  
  
There’s a silence loaded with meaning before Yunho laughs softly.  
  
“Happy anniversary,” he says. Changmin feels a small smile tug at his lips.  
  
“Wow. Nine years.”  
  
“Sick of me yet?” Yunho asks playfully.  
  
“Extremely.” Yunho makes a small sound of indignation and Changmin grins. “I don’t think you realise how annoying you are. You leave your clothes all over the house. You never put the cap back on the toothpaste. You forget your keys all the time and then run back in to get them with your shoes on. Everything you do drives me crazy.”  
  
Changmin can’t see him, but he can practically  _hear_  Yunho’s grin.  
  
“But you know the most annoying thing of all?” Changmin continues, voice softening. “It’s how despite all that you make me need you so much I’m completely useless without you around.”  
  
Yunho exhales softly. Now Changmin is glad he can’t see him, because he’s blushing so hard even his ears are red.  
  
“I love you too,” Yunho says.  
  
“Yeah yeah,” Changmin mutters. Yunho laughs and asks him how his Christmas was before launching into a story about how he’d rallied the neighbourhood kids and staged an epic snowball battle the likes of which Gwangju had never seen before. Changmin shakes his head and tells him to act his age, to which Yunho blithely replies that one is never too old for snowball fights.  
  
“Hey,” Changmin says just before they hang up. “I forgot to say something.”  
  
“Hm?” Yunho sounds sleepy. Changmin imagines him curled up in his childhood bed and smiles.  
  
“Happy anniversary hyung.”  
  
  
 _28th December 2012_  
  
They meet at the airport on the way to Japan. Yunho had gotten stuck in traffic on the way back into Seoul so they’re running behind schedule. The location is too public for the sort of reunion Changmin wants to have, so he settles for clutching Yunho’s hand briefly before they get on the plane.  
  
They finally get a moment to themselves after their performance and Yunho pulls him into a quiet corner of the dressing room. People are frequently coming in and out and the hallway is chaos, but they create a private bubble of their own that nobody dares breach for a few minutes. Yunho presses a small box into Changmin’s hand and smiles.  
  
“Merry Christmas,” he says quietly. Changmin raises an eyebrow as he unwraps the present.  
  
“I thought you already got me something,” he says.  
  
“I wanted to see you open this one in person.”  
  
Changmin opens the velvet jewellery box and stifles a gasp. Two rings are cushioned inside, graceful against blue silk. They are exceedingly simple, just twin silver bands. Engraved on the inside of one is Yunho’s name. The other has Changmin’s.  
  
“Really hyung? Couple rings?” Changmin murmurs. Yunho grins and picks up the one with his name on it. He takes Changmin’s left hand and slides the ring onto it, admiring the silver against his slender fingers. “People will talk,” Changmin says.  
  
“People already talk,” Yunho shrugs.  
  
“They’ll talk more.”  
  
“Just shut up and put the ring on me.”  
  
Changmin glances to the side. Three stylists and four dancers are in the room with them, but nobody is paying attention to them. Still, he angles his body slightly to hide Yunho from view before picking the ring up and sliding it onto his finger.  
  
Their hands tangle and Changmin feels his chest constrict with emotion. He presses his forehead against Yunho’s and closes his eyes, but the moment is short-lived. Their manager comes into the room and tells Changmin he has a flight to catch back to Korea in two hours and that if they don’t leave for the airport now they’ll miss it. Yunho is staying in Japan for some solo activities before they’re due to meet up in Shanghai on the 31st for a New Years Eve concert.  
  
Changmin waves forlornly to Yunho before he leaves, and it’s only afterwards that he realises he didn’t thank him for the gift.  
  
  
 _30th December 2012_  
  
“Can’t you come back early?” Changmin whines into his phone. He hears Yunho sigh.  
  
“You know I can’t, I have a press conference tonight and a photoshoot in the morning. I’ll see you tomorrow anyway, what’s the big deal?”  
  
“I feel like I haven’t seen you in years,” Changmin hangs off the edge of his bed and kicks his legs against the duvet.  
  
“You saw me two days ago.”  
  
“You know what I mean. I haven’t seen you  _properly_  since before Christmas!” Changmin holds his hand out in front of his face and plays with the silver ring on his finger. There’s a soft laugh from Yunho’s end of the line.  
  
“What’s this? Changminnie, do you. . .miss me?”  
  
Changmin jolts upright, his hair sticking up everywhere from the number of times he’d run his hands through it in frustration before he broke down and called Yunho.  
  
“No,” he lies.  
  
“You do! You so do!”  
  
“Shut up.”  
  
“Oh, you miss me so bad,” Yunho sing songs. “You want to hoooold me, you want to kiiiiss me - ”  
  
“I’m reconsidering it right about now.”  
  
“It’s okay to want a piece baby. Most people do.”  
  
“Doesn’t it get tiring being this obnoxious all the time?”  
  
“I don’t know, you tell me.”  
  
Yunho cackles until Changmin rolls his eyes and hangs up on him.  
  
  
 _31st December 2012, 1:15pm_  
  
Changmin storms backstage trailing a line of harried stylists. He pushes open their dressing room door and various people scatter out of his way before he finds their manager.  
  
“Where is he?” Changmin demands. Manager shakes his head.  
  
“I don’t know. My calls aren’t going through, there’s some disturbance on the line.”  
  
Changmin growls under his breath and yanks his phone out. He’s tried calling Yunho countless times already with no luck, but there’s nothing else to do but try again. The Shanghai concert starts in five hours and as far as they know Yunho is still in Japan.  
  
The phone rings for a few seconds before, through some miracle, it connects. Yunho’s frantic voice comes on over the line.  
  
“Changmin-ah!”  
  
“Finally!” Changmin explodes. “Where the hell are you?”  
  
“There’s a blizzard in Tokyo!” Yunho says. Changmin freezes. “It just hit - everything’s shut down and they’ve cancelled all flights. I don’t think I’m going to make it.”  
  
Changmin curses and relays the message to their manager, who groans and sinks into a nearby chair.  
  
“Can’t you get a charter flight out of there?” Changmin demands.  
  
“Sure, if I felt like dying. Have you ever  _been_  in a blizzard?”  
  
“Are you being smart with me Jung?” Changmin asks, tone dangerous.  
  
“No. No smartness here,” Yunho says quickly. Changmin snorts.  
  
“That’s evident. What are we going to do? Should we cancel our performance?”  
  
He’s talking to both their manager and Yunho. Manager shrugs helplessly and indicates that cancelling might be the best course of action, but Yunho is clearly thinking along a different line.  
  
“No. You should go ahead with the performance,” he says.  
  
“ _What?_ ”  
  
“We made a commitment Changmin. It’s not fair to the organisers if we back out now, we’re supposed to close the show.”  
  
“I can’t go out there alone!”  
  
“Yes you can. Listen - ” Static fills the line for a few seconds and Yunho’s voice fades.  
  
“Yunho?” Changmin thinks he might hyperventilate. “Yunho!”  
  
“Crap, the weather’s messing with reception,” Yunho says. He starts talking faster. “Listen to me Changmin. You can still pull this off. Get one of the dancers to do my parts in a mask, they know all the moves.”  
  
“I can’t - ” Changmin starts faintly.  
  
“Listen to me! I know you can do this. You won’t be out there alone, dancer hyungs will all be right there with you. I believe in you Changminnie. You can do anything you put your mind to. Make me proud okay? I lo - ”  
  
The call drops. Changmin lowers his phone and stares at it for a few long minutes.  
  
And then there was one.  
  
  
 _31st December 2012, 11:45pm_  
  
Changmin discovers that he can in fact do it alone, but that he derives no pleasure from performing without Yunho. There’s a moment as the lights go up when he thinks he might throw up, but then the performer in him takes over and he automatically jerks into action. After that it all goes surprisingly well, but Yunho’s absence is something they all feel keenly.  
  
There’s an afterparty later on and Changmin rings in the new year with his friends and labelmates. Halfway through the night he gets a text that Yunho has caught a flight at last and is on the way. Changmin shoves his phone back in his pocket without replying and barely reacts when the door opens to admit Yunho, who is greeted with raucous cheers by the other partygoers. Changmin’s panic has morphed into the slow burn of anger. He’s angry at Yunho for putting him through the most stressful night of his life, even though his rational side knows that Yunho had in fact saved the day by insisting he still perform. He’s angry that Yunho wasn’t there when he needed him. He’s especially angry that they weren’t able to make new years resolutions together.  
  
Yunho catches his eye from the other side of the room. He looks tired and apologetic but Changmin steels himself and turns away. He ducks out of the party early and goes back to their hotel, and if Yunho comes back to his adjourning room he doesn’t hear him.  
  
  
 _1st January 2013_  
  
The duvet is pulled aside and Changmin whines as cold air sweeps into his cocoon of blankets. He flings a hand out to try and tug it back down, but the space is soon filled by a warm body that curls up around him. Changmin sighs and opens his eyes.  
  
“Hi,” Yunho says against his chin.  
  
“Hey,” Changmin mumbles.  
  
“Are you still mad at me?”  
  
It’s too early to get worked up about anything and Changmin knows Yunho knows that, the sneaky bastard. He slides an arm around Yunho’s waist and burrows against his chest.  
  
“No. I wasn’t really mad at you in the first place,” he murmurs. “I was angry because I haven’t seen you in like a week and you know how insufferable that makes me.”  
  
Yunho grins and sits up to straddle him. “Well, I’m all yours now,” he says. He waggles his eyebrows as Changmin gazes up at him. “Like what you see?”  
  
Changmin snorts. “No. You have eyebags and two day old stubble.”  
  
“You are so romantic right now I may swoon.”  
  
“Swoon on your own time,” Changmin flips them and presses Yunho into the bed. “You’re on my time now and if you pass out on me I will be very unhappy.”  
  
Yunho laughs as Changmin leans down and peppers his face with kisses, starting with his brow, cheeks, nose and each eyelid before finally capturing his lips. Their arms slide around each other and Yunho yanks Changmin down until his whole weight is sprawled across the older man.  
  
After a while Changmin murmurs, “This is gross. I haven’t even brushed my teeth yet. I can’t believe you let me kiss you with morning breath.”  
  
“I like you gross,” Yunho says against his lips. Changmin pulls back with a laugh and settles his head on Yunho’s shoulder. His chin tingles and he runs his fingers over Yunho’s stubble.  
  
“Prickly,” he murmurs. Then, as a random afterthought, “You should grow a beard.”  
  
“My fans would despair,” Yunho laughs.  
  
“Who cares, you’d look hot. All scruffy and manly. Get one of those sexy ones that are just on your chin and along your jawline,” Changmin says, tracing the path with his fingers. Yunho catches his hand and presses kisses against his fingertips.  
  
“Maybe not,” he says. “Besides, I like that you’re the only one who gets to see me in this state.”  
  
Changmin rises up on his elbow and kisses him again. It’s not perfect - his lips are chapped and Yunho’s elbow digs into his side, but it’s Yunho so he wouldn’t have it any other way. He strokes the side of Yunho’s face and coaxes his mouth open with his tongue, licking into the wet heat lazily. Yunho makes a sound in the back of his throat and clutches at him, the kiss becoming hotter until Changmin pulls away, panting and dazed. He buries his nose in Yunho’s neck and breathes in the scent of him, warm and familiar.  
  
“I missed you,” Changmin admits, voice muffled against Yunho’s skin.  
  
“I know,” Yunho smiles.  
  
“I love you,” Changmin mumbles.  
  
“I know baby.”  
  
“Don’t leave me alone again.”  
  
“I won’t.”  
  
“We need to stop with the solo activities. They suck and I just spend the whole time missing you.”  
  
“No more solo stuff, got it.”  
  
Changmin raises his head and flashes Yunho a guilty look. “I don’t really mean that. You can do anything you want. I can’t dictate your career for you, that’s so ridiculous. Why would you agree with me on that?”  
  
Yunho laughs and pulls Changmin back down, cradling him in his arms and rocking them together.  
  
“Happy new year Changminnie,” he says into Changmin’s hair, and Changmin smiles and closes his eyes.  
  
“Happy new year hyung.”  
  
  


 


End file.
